It's here! Day 7: The last day of my Detox. I have revolutionised the way I use fruit and vegetables in my cooking and I feel so so healthy because of it. I'm bouncing, can you tell? I am going to keep many parts of this 'detox' going adding some of the main ideas to my everyday diet.

1. I will keep drinking lemon juice and water every morning before I eat. Juice from 1/2 a lemon mixed with water can do wonders. It helps reduce ingestion and stimulates digestion as well as boosts your immune system with powerful vitamin C. This blog has a great article on the benefits of adding lemon to your diet.

2. I will think of adding carbohydrates differently and try to avoid simple starches such as white rice and g/f pasta and replace them with quinoa, brown rice, and 'zucchini' pasta.

3. I will aim to detox more regularly. (The last one I tried to do was 4 years ago!)

Here is the carrot chop salad I made in my Thermomix.

Carrot Chop Salad

Dressing

Juice of half an orange

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

A pinch of cinnamon

Salt and pepper to season

Salad

1 long piece of orange peel (use a potato peeler on the skin of the orange)

350g carrots chopped into large pieces

3 spring onions, white part removed and chopped into large pieces

A handful of parsley

150g pistachio nuts

1 pomegranate, seeds removed (cut in half and then bang on the skin side with a wooden spoon to release the seeds)

METHOD

1. To make the dressing add all the ingredients into a jar and combine. set aside.

2. Place the orange peel into the Thermomix and process speed 7 / 30 seconds.

3. Weigh in the carrot then add the spring onion and parsley. Chop 5 seconds / speed 5. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and repeat for 2 seconds.

I can't do a detox with out including a juice recipe. Juices and smoothies are such a super cool way to start your morning. They are easy on the digestive system and so refreshing when the weather is so bloody hot. Day 6 done and I am thinking of keeping the Detox going! With out posting of course ;) It really has not been as hard as I thought and I feel too good to stop now.

1. To prepare the eggplant cut it into large pieces (about a 2 cm dice) and place in a colander. Sprinkle eggplant with salt and leave for a 1/2 hour. Rinse the eggplant with water and set aside. - this step is time consuming but does make a large difference to the taste of the eggplant!

2. Cut the white parts from the spring onion and discard (keep the white part if you are not using the FODMAP approach). Cut in to large pieces and place in the Thermomix with the chili and coriander. Chop 5 seconds / speed 5.

How do you do Friday night drinks on a detox? I was lying in bed thinking about this question; mulling it over like a weighty problem that needed to be solved. So far the detox has had a number of positive effects including a small amount of weight loss. That is to be expected wen you cut out the main food groups that make up the festive season: wine, desert, and cheese. So instead of pining after a glass of cold SSB or a beer at Cottesloe I decided to get excited about a drink recipe. This is what I had had at the back of my mind for a while and decided to test the recipe yesterday. The brilliant thing about the Thermomix is that it makes syrups in a flash and with very little effort. I created a Green Tea and Lemon Cordial to have in a glass of soda water, ice and mint leaves. Now I think that gets me just as excited as a beer at the beach does and when the detox has finished cleansing me I will add a splash of Gin to this cocktail haha!

Green Tea and Lemon Cordial

200g raw sugar

200g water

3 green tea tea bags – Use the best quality you can find. I used ‘Madame Flavour’s’ Green tea, jasmine and pear tea bags.

1 Lemon, juiced

METHOD

1.Measure the water and sugar into the Thermomix. Cut the strings off the tea bags and add them to the bowl. Cook 10 minutes/ Veroma temperature / spoon speed/ reverse.

2.When done, use tongs to remove the tea bags and discard. Pour syrup into a heat proof jar and add the lemon juice. Stir to combine. Let it cool completely.

3.When ready to mix a drink add soda water, ice, mint leaves and a dash of the cordial. Enjoy!

Hi-ya!! (That's me doing a karate chop) At this stage of the detox I feel like a healthy detox ninja!

BREAKFAST: Quinoa Porridge with strawbs and almonds.

LUNCH: Asian Noodle broth - not completely a detox meal but I allowed myself one meal with rice noodles and using soy - how naughty!

DINNER: Eggplant curry with brown rice and salad.

SNACKS: Banana smoothie and an apple.

I am feeling healthy and fantastic so now it's about keeping the detox going without cheating too much! I found this fantastic resource. There are excellent detox meal ideas and plans. Some of the recipes include 'Thai vegetable salad wraps with almond sauce' and 'lamb tacos.'

I'm not going to post this Asian broth recipe yet. I am so used to making noodle soup the traditional method that I want to refine the process in the Thermomix. Watch this space.

Do you know Garam Masala, the spice blend? It's just gorgeous isn't it! I have had the fragrance of home made Garam Masala wafting though the house all morning. I've been recipe testing for a delicious eggplant curry and I am using a jar of Garam Masala my mum made. She carefully chose the best spices from a local spice store and ground them in the Thermomix to create cute little jars of the spice blend to give away for Christmas. The recipe is in the Every Day Cookbook. It was a foodie gift that proved way more practical than shortbread.

Day 2 of the Detox feels amazing. There is a spring in my step and I feel like Wonder Woman, just without the costume.

I have just downed some pain killers to numb my monster headache. I know it won't last long. It's scary to think how much preservatives and caffeine effect you. But I am enjoying the fresh wholesome food I have around me. My fridge looks like a veggie garden. This is a good read for motivation! I particularly agree with doing yoga and excersize to sweat the toxins out.

BREAKFAST: Quinoa Porridge

LUNCH: Salad with carrot sticks and hummus.

SNACK: Banana smoothie ( 1 banana, 1/2 cup almond milk, ice and a dollop of honey wizzed in the Thermomix), and an apple

DINNER: Grilled Lamb with a dollop of kale pesto, beetroot and a side of salad.

Here is the recipe for the quinoa porridge.

QUINOA PORIDGE

80g rinsed quinoa

125g water

125g almond milk (or milk of your choice)

1 tsp vanilla

100g almond milk

2 tsp chia seeds

Rapadura sugar (substitute any sugar), fresh fruit and nuts to serve.

METHOD

1. Place the quinoa, 125g milk and the water in the thermomix. Cook 15 minutes / 90 degrees / speed 1 / reverse.

The festivities of the Christmas season are long gone. But in its place is a sparkling optimism that rolled in with the new year. 2014 is going to be a good one. I can feel it. M and I were crazy enough to move house a week before Christmas. Can you believe it? (We don't have internet yet so I am doing this all on my phone) But now it's January 6 and I find myself in a new home, a new kitchen, and a new year.

I rolled out of bed reluctantly this morning. My back creaked my stomach was in a knot and my skin felt like a shriveled prune. The festive season has been a whirlwind of yummy food and luscious wine but this was no hang over. It's not hard to discipher what my body was telling me. I NEED a detox. A green smoothie and yoga is not going to cut it this time. No? A whole 7 days of a proper detox is what I need.

I set about to do some research about a detox diet and then composed a healthy 7 day diet. I combined some simple detox ideas I found online but found this website most helpful. My goal is to post my diet everyday for the next 7 days starting January 7 with recipes and ideas for healthy eating using the Thermomix. I am not a nutritionist or dietitian so these are just my thoughts from a little bit of internet searching.

THE DETOX

1. Start every day with the juice from half a lemon mixed with a glass of water. This helps with digestion and just feels healthy!

5. Eliminate processed meats and beef. Chicken, fish and lamb only. eggs and nuts are a great source of protein so I am going to include more of those this week.

5. Eat lots if green veggies and fruit. I will be sticking with the FODMAP friendly ones of course.

Day 0: The day to shop and prep.

So what can I eat? Well when I actually sat down to meal plan it wasn't that hard to come up with some beautiful meal ideas. Breakfast is going to be quinoa porridge, eggs, or a fresh smoothie. Lunch and dinner meals will include salads, an eggplant curry, zucchini pasta with a kale pesto, veggie omelet and an Asian style chicken soup. Snacks will be nuts or some sweet potato hummus with veggie sticks.

MAKE AHEAD: No diet is any good with out planning. I spent most of the day looking at recipes, food shopping and prepping for the 7 days ahead. I made ahead some kale pesto in the Thermomix and some sweet potato hummus to have as a snack with veggie sticks.

Here is the kale pesto I wizzed up in the Thermomix.

1 bunch of kale

a handful of parsley

50g natural almonds

1 lemon

Olive oil

Method

1. Cut around the stalks of the kale so that the leaves are left and discard. Put the kale in a heatproof bowl and cover the kale with boiling water for 1 minute. Drain the kale and transfer to a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes or until cool.

2. Squeeze all the water from the kale out and place in the Thermomix (a blender will work also). Add the parsley and weigh in the almonds. Chop 10 seconds / speed 7.

It’s been a whirlwind of events lately. My food life has basically exploded with the busy pre-Christmas franticness that comes at this time of year. As a result I have had recipes floating around my head and half formed food ideas scribbled down here and there. Last week I found myself at Eat.Drink.Blog, an Australian food blogging conference. It was a fantastic foodie event and I was inspired to think about why I write this blog.

Why Do I blog?

To create a story

To inspire others

To be creative and passionate about healthy eating

To learn

To have an opinion

To be authentic and artful

To celebrate what is local

Meeting with other bloggers was insightful, inspiring, encouraging and a little loony. Haha what a quirky world of people we all are. The event was held at he Perth City Farm – a fantastic foodie haven. I had so many recipe ideas bubbling up in my head. Especially after visiting the mushroom farm. As part of the conference we were treated to a tour of Crown Mushooms. I had never really thought about how amazing mushrooms are. They are seriously amazing. Some helpful facts I picked up include:

The mushroom is not a plant, and so it has a different nutritional profile to that of fruit and vegetables.

When mushrooms are cooked the level of fibre increases!

There is a strong association between mushroom consumption and a lower risk of breast cancer. Research is ongoing to determine the exact role mushrooms play in reducing the risk. (whoa!)

Research shows that a serve of mushrooms a day can help control the appetite so you don't over eat.

Mushrooms are high in Mannitol, one of the FODMAP carbohydrate chains which in high amounts can upset some peoples stomach. I have never had trouble with mushrooms and given their amazing health benefits I love cooking with them too. Yum Yum!

As a recovery from the franticness of the past few weeks I needed to cook something simple and nourishing; something to bring me back to earth and into my humble world of cooking. Ah baking! What a treat it is to put together some of these little beauties. These spelt flour cookies are low in lactose and are very low in gluten. Spelt flour is not completely gluten free but is a great flour to work with if you are taking the FODMAP approach or are looking for an alternative to wheat.

Chocolate and Sesame Spelt Cookies

100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)

45g brown rice (purchase brown rice flour for non-Thermomix users)

80g room temperature butter

100g raw sugar

2 tbsp tahini (sesame butter)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

60g white spelt flour

40g quinoa flakes

½ tsp bi-carb soda

Directions – Thermomix

Reheat oven to 180c. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Weigh the chocolate into the Thermomix. Chop 5 seconds/ speed 5. Set aside.

I’m on the road again and I feel a big
sigh of relief roll through my body. I feel so blessed to have places to escape
to in regional and rural Western Australia. City life hums along at a rapid
pace. It is bustling, active and exciting. But visiting the country is
like a fresh breath of air strait to the head. It gets rid of all the cobwebs. Calms
me down. So here M and I are again on a road trip to Margaret River; getting
rid of the cobwebs.

Did you know driving makes you hungry? I
hear my tummy rumble as we pull in to the tree-lined driveway. ‘Is that your
tummy?!’ M says this like a statement rather than a question. ‘Yes it is!’ and
we chuckle. It was a good thing I had packed left over risotto from the night
before. It’s a tangy lemon risotto with prawns. I have taken to eating it with
slices of avocado sitting on top and a smattering of Parmesan cheese.

Risotto can be hard to reheat. It is
often mushy and not as nice as the night before. Have you had that experience?
But I learned a rad trick; it helps to cool any leftovers down quickly by
spreading it out on a plate in the fridge and then when cool putting it in a
container to freeze. I always make my risotto a little more liquidy if I am
making leftovers – which is most of the time. Since I make risotto in the
thermomix there is always leftovers!

Lemon Risotto with Prawns

* For those without a thermomix see
alternative directions below.

50g Parmesan cut into cubes

Rind of one lemon, peeled into strips
with a potato peeler

2 spring onions (I use the green part
only)

A handful of parsley

25g olive oil

300g Arborio rice

2 tbsp TM stock (or 2 good quality stock
cubes)

1L of water

250g frozen cooked and peeled prawns

Juice of one lemon

Sliced avocado to serve

Salt and pepper

Directions

Place Parmesan in to thermomix bowl and
grate 10 seconds / speed 9. Set aside.

Place lemon rind into bowl and grate
speed 8 / 10 seconds. Scrape down sides and repeat until desired coarseness is
reached.

Add spring onion and chop 3 seconds/
speed 6

Add oil and sauté 3 minutes/ 100
degrees/ speed 1

Add rice, and sauté 2 minutes/ 100
degrees/reverse/ speed 1 (you can use
the butterfly here if you wish)